ESCALATING WAR | Schools sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians attacked as the conflict enters its 20th month

Agencies Gaza Strip

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 59 people, including women and children, hospital officials said Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a devastating war now entering its 20th month.

The strikes included one attack on Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children. It was the fifth time since the war began that the school in central Gaza has been struck.

An early morning strike on another school turned shelter in Gaza City killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes on targets in other areas killed at least 16 others.

A large column of smoke rose and fires pierced the dark skies above the school shelter in Bureij, a built-up urban refugee camp. Paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull people out from the blaze. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Israel blames Hamas for the death toll because it operates from civilian infrastructure, including schools.

The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies.

Israel is also calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented until after US President Donald Trump wraps up his visit to the region later this month.

Any escalation of fighting would likely drive up the death toll. And with Israel already controlling some 50% of Gaza, increasing its hold on the territory, for an indefinite amount of time, could open up the potential for a military occupation, which would raise questions about how Israel plans to have the territory governed.

Only 21 hostages alive’: Trump draws Israel’ ire

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel's offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. The officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

Trump on Tuesday stunned many in Israel when he declared that only 21 of the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza are still alive. Israel insists that figure stands at 24, although an Israeli official said there was "serious concern" for the lives of three captives. The official said there has been no sign of life from those three, whom the official did not identify. 

He said that until there is evidence proving otherwise, the three are considered to be alive.  The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details related to the war, said the families of the captives were updated on those developments. Hamas says it is prepared to release all of the hostages for an end to the war and a long term truce with Israel.